Drama definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (15)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

noun A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story, that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action.
noun A serious narrative work or program for television, radio, or the cinema.
noun Theatrical plays of a particular kind or period: Elizabethan drama.

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Century Dictionary (4)

A story put into action, or a story of human life told by actual representation of persons by persons, with imitation of language, voice, gesture, dress, and accessories or surrounding conditions, the whole produced with reference to truth or probability, and with or without the aid of music, dancing, painting, and decoration; a play. The church was usually the theatre wherein these pious dramas were performed, and the actors were the ecclesiastics or their scholars. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 227. Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last. Bp. Berkeley, Arts and Learning in America. A drama is the imitation (in a particular way) of an action regarded as one, and treated as complete. In the observation of the process of a complete action, and in the attempt to imitate it in accordance with such observation, must therefore be sought the beginnings of the drama. A. W. Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit. Int., p. xvii.
A composition in verse or prose, or in both, presenting in dialogue a course of human action, designed, or seemingly designed, to be spoken in character and represented on the stage; a form of imitated and represented action regulated by literary canons; the description of a story converted into the action of a play, and thereby constituting a department of literary art: as, the classic drama; the Hindu drama; the Elizabethan drama. The construction of such a composition is, as a general rule, marked by three stages: first, the opening of the movement; second, the growth or development of the action; third, the close or catastrophe, which must in all cases be the consequence of the action itself, as unfolded in acts, scenes, and situations. The drama, whether in actual life or mimic representation, assumes two principal forms, namely, tragedy and comedy; and from modifications or combinations of these result the mixed or minor forms, known as tragicomedy, melodrama, lyric drama or grand opera, opera bouffe, farce, and burletta. Other forms, suggested by the subject and the manner of presenting it, are the nautical drama, the pastoral drama, the society drama, etc. Both tragedy and comedy attained a high degree of development in the ancient Greek drama, which originated in the worship of Bacchus. Sophocles made the Greek drama as dramatic as was consistent with its original form. Macaulay, Milton. It is sometimes supposed that the drama consists of incident. It consists of passion, which gives the actor his opportunity; and that passion must progressively increase, or the actor, as the piece proceeded, would be unable to carry the audience from a lower to a higher pitch of interest and emotion. R. L. Stevenson, A Humble Remonstrance. In the epic poem there is only one speaker—the poet himself. The action is bygone. The scene is described. The persons are spoken of as third persons. There are only two concerned in it, the poet and the reader. In the drama the action is present, the scene is visible, the persons are speakers, the sentiments and passions are theirs. Dion Boucicault, in New York Herald, July 6, 1888.
Dramatic representation with its adjuncts; theatrical entertainment: as, he has a strong taste for the drama. It was on the support of these parts of the town that the playhouses depended. The character of the drama became conformed to the character of its patrons. Macaulay, Comic Dramatists.

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But following an agreement, the drama was averted. — Cricinfo news from Cricinfo
But the drama is the least-watched of eight remaining network soaps, averaging 2.2 million viewers this season.
The key players in this drama were the aforementioned Oddsson, child of The Octopus, and the Baugur father and son [mostly the son, Jón Ásgeir]. — The Iceland Weather Report
Just when we thought that DaveScot may have finally decided to make a teeny bit of sense after all, he ends up crashing our hopes to the ground by posting something so mind-numbingly ridiculous; making us realize that his drama is a train wreck that we simply cannot stop watching. — Planet Atheism
Central to the drama is a bipartisan bloc of more than a dozen senators who hold the balance of power and are struggling to reach agreement among themselves over how best to scale back the $924 billion package. — ModerateVoters.org

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drama

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